Closing a credit card account usually hurts your credit score, because it increases the percentage of your total credit you are using compared with the total credit limit of your other cards. Unactivated credit cards can hurt your credit score too, even if you cancel the card. You cannot know if a credit card impacts your credit score until you check your report.
Impact on Credit Score
An unactivated credit card will not hurt your score unless the lender reports it to the credit bureaus. If you cancel the card before the lender reports it, the account will not affect your score. Close the account as soon as you open it and you could damage your score because a new account will lower the average age of your credit history, which counts for 15 percent of your credit score.
Considerations
Whether or not you cancel a credit card before a lender can report it to the credit bureaus, the act of applying for credit will damage your score. Each time a creditor has to perform a hard pull on your credit, because you asked for credit, your score takes about a five-point hit.
Preapproved Offers
Preapproved offers -- credit cards you receive in the mail that you did not apply for -- do not affect your credit not matter how long you let them sit. Creditors who send preapproved offers cannot run a hard pull on your report. If you decide to accept a preapproved card, the account will start counting against your score, but it also could see a boost if you make payments on time.
Tip
The only way to truly know if an unactivated card counts against your score is to run a credit check on yourself from all three major credit rating companies. You receive one free report from each agency annually from AnnualCreditReport. If an unactivated card shows up on your credit report, you may want to activate it and pay off any balances every month to raise your credit score. Closed accounts stay on your record for 10 years regardless of standing.
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